Charlotte (AFP) – England’s Tyrrell Hatton and American Max Homa made early charges in Friday’s second round of the PGA Championship as leader Jhonattan Vegas of Venezuela teed off with a two-stroke advantage. Vegas birdied five of his last six holes on Thursday at Quail Hollow to fire a seven-under par 64, his lowest round in a major, and grab the lead ahead of his Friday start off the first tee.
“I didn’t really see that score coming,” Vegas said. “A solid round from beginning to end. Good way to start.” American Ryan Gerard, set to start in the penultimate group off the 10th tee, and Australian Cam Davis shared second on five-under. Davis, who began Friday in the second group off the first tee, fell back with a bogey at the third hole, sending his approach over the green, but holed out from 53 feet to birdie the par-three sixth and return to five-under.
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Hatton started Friday on the back nine with back-to-back birdies but stumbled with a bogey at 14 to stand in a share of third on four-under. Hatton sank a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-five 10th and a 20-footer at 11 before finding water off the 14th tee on the way to bogey. The pack on four-under also included England’s Luke Donald, New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger, and American Alex Smalley, the final alternate who made the field on the eve of play. Donald or Hatton could become the first Englishman to win the PGA Championship since Jim Barnes in 1919.
Homa, a back-nine starter, opened with a tap-in birdie at 10, sank a 22-foot birdie putt at the par-three 13th, eagled the par-four 14th after dropping his tee shot inches from the hole, and sank a 15-foot birdie putt at the par-five 15th to reach three-under. The feature group of the world’s three top-ranked players — set for an afternoon start Friday — struggled in round one, with world number one Scottie Scheffler on 69, defending champion, third-ranked Xander Schauffele on 72, and Masters winner Rory McIlroy on 74.
All three made double bogeys at the par-four 16th on Thursday, with Schauffele and Scheffler blaming mud on their balls for fairway shots soaring into water, unhappy the PGA of America chose not to allow preferred lies so mud could be cleaned from fairway balls after days of rain. “It’s frustrating,” Scheffler said. “You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and due to a rules decision all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes. But I don’t make the rules. I just have to deal with the consequences of those rules.”
– ‘It’s kind of stupid’ – Schauffele agreed, adding: “It’s just unfortunate to be hitting good shots and to pay them off that way. It’s kind of stupid.” The mud balls are going to get worse as the plays dries up. They’re going to get in that perfect cake zone. Not everyone, however, was so critical of the move, typical for a major tournament.
“The PGA Tour and PGA of America referees know what they’re doing,” Rai said. “They know a lot more than us as players. That decision would have been based on the right reasons. Without playing preferred lies, it brought in the challenge of the short game a little bit more.” New Zealand’s Ryan Fox said he never expected anything else from organizers. “I was expecting it not to be,” Fox said. “I think probably all of us would have liked it to be, but it is a major championship.”
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